Relay athletes fire up ahead of 2021

With less than a week to go until Christmas, Australia’s premier sprinting crop have completed an intensive 4x100m relay camp at the AIS ahead of a blockbuster 2021 which features both the Tokyo Olympic Games and World Relay Championships in Poland. 

Eight men and eight women, including the likes of Riley Day, Rohan Browning and Jacinta Beecher, attended the camp which focused on perfecting race intensity relay changes. 

Athletics Australia Event Group Lead - Sprints and Relays Adam Larcom, deemed the camp a great success ahead of the 2021 campaign. 

“I’m excited by the professionalism, enthusiasm and elite attitudes displayed at the camp. We have a unique opportunity to extract our best performance at the world level next year,” he said. 

“Both our men and women have progressed since the previous camp in February this year and it’s been great to re-engage with both teams and further develop our relay ability,” he said. 

From the outside, a successful 4x100m team may appear to be four fast athletes - but the copious hours invested in perfecting relay changes is a key factor in shaving off the hundredths of seconds that often prove to be the difference on the world stage. 

In addition to the 16 Seniors at the camp were some of Australia’s most talented Juniors providing a clear pathway for their future ambitions. 

“Throughout the camp juniors were able to review and contrast their relay exchanges with the seniors and therefore model their performance on what is required at the international level,” Larcom said. 

The camp set out clear performance criteria for all athletes and analysed their relay performance against this criteria in order to identify where improvements can be made - however marginal they may be. 

Larcom says that the camp not only provided a positive environment on the track, but so too off it. 

“Both men’s and women’s teams are really united and show respect towards each other,” he said. 

“We have a strong relay culture of committing to elite performance and to supporting each other while in the relay environment.” 

The teams will regroup in February of 2021 before heading to Poland for the World Relay Championships in May. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse
Posted: 22/12/2020